Back to school time very similar to a century ago

Winnipeg

Thousands of children flooded back to Winnipeg schools this week after their summer break. A century ago, back-to-school day was Tuesday, Sept. 1, 1925, and the lead up to it wasn’t much different than it is today.

A Free Press editorial noted: “That most significant feature of Canadian life, the school bell, will this week once more ring out its post-vacation invitation…. To mothers its message is one very likely of relief after an eight-week siege with Young Canada apparently, in the opinion of the anxious parent, bent upon self-destruction or at least upon a sojourn in jail. To fathers it brings reminders of bills for new shoes, clothes and books.”

The first signs of the looming school year were back-to-school sales.

Department store ads from Eaton’s, The Bay and Robinson’s show that children wore more formal garb with dresses for girls and suits for boys, the latter available in short pants for the younger set and long trousers for high schoolers.

The school supply aisle was much simpler. Pencil sets, exercise books, and scribblers were all that was needed for a basic school bag.

Winnipeg’s public school system expanded greatly after the First World War by adding several schools in 1922–23, including Wolseley, Faraday, David Livingstone, Grosvenor and Daniel McIntyre Collegiate Institute. There were no new buildings for the start of the 1925 school year, though a four-room expansion opened at Faraday School, which was already bursting at the seams.

The Public School Board faced criticism over recent school tax increases, which led it to make comparisons in its 1925 annual report to illustrate how much the student population had grown.

Winnipeg had 19,166 public school students in 1913, which nearly doubled to 37,024 in 1925. This required the construction or expansion of 38 schools to bring the total to 70. It noted that the cost of educating each student was $86.73, a figure lower than any other major Western city except Vancouver.

By comparison, today’s Winnipeg School Division, which approximates the boundaries of the old Winnipeg Public School Board, had 31,604 students at 78 schools in 2024. This decline compared to a century ago is due largely to the growth in family suburban living and a fertility rate that has dropped from 3.13 children per woman in 1925 to a record low of 1.26 in 2023.

One thing that Winnipeggers didn’t have to worry about in 1925 were school speed zones. Remember to slow down starting Sept. 1!